Joss Whedon: 'Avengers 2' And 'Guardians Of The Galaxy' Will Not Cross Over

Just yesterday, we reported to you that Joss Whedon was extremely excited about director James Gunn’s vision for Marvel’s upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy, a wacky film about an intergalactic superhuman police force that includes a sentient tree and a talking, gun-toting raccoon. And since it is rumored that Thanos (the big bad guy in The Avengers’ post-credits teaser) will make an appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy, as well as the fact that all films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are intertwined with cameos, shared characters, and linked post-credits scenes, one would assume that Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers 2 would share some form of onscreen cross over, especially as the two films will be released back to back. But not so, according to Whedon.

In a recent interview with Bleeding Cool (via Total Film), Whedon stated that there will be no swapping of cast or characters between the two:

“We’re following Guardians at Shepperton Studios…but we won’t be swapping cast members. Every movie is its own thing and has to be. Unless I take a lot of peyote and write a very different draft… and I’m not ruling that out.”

It seems that Whedon’s vision for Marvel Phase 2 may involve a far more stand-alone nature to the films; further, as Total Film points out, given how Iron Man 3 makes only a few passing mentions of the events in The Avengers, and its post-credits stinger is less a scene than a cheap and quick sight gag, the idea of a far more individual nature to the Phase 2 films doesn’t seem too far off.

Of course, we could just wait and see when Guardians is released in 2014 and Avengers 2 in 2015, but this is the internet—we must meet our quota of heedless speculation or we’ll get shut down. You understand.